RKC News - December 2018

The Turkish Getup is particularly a top choice for older adults. Even though it can sometimes be a difficult and lengthy process to learn the TGU at an older age, it is always a worthwhile endeavor.

As is well known in kettlebell circles, the Turkish Getup demands and promotes a high level of mobility and coordination. This is often significantly lacking in older age. The body adapts to what you give it. Movements that are never or rarely required are eventually just not performed by the body anymore.

With decreasing muscle strength, movements are increasingly reduced to their minimum as one ages. Steps become smaller and less stable, and more frequently, people rely on their arms for support when getting up.

Decreasing muscle strength is not the only problem here. All of our movements are controlled by our nervous system. With every learned movement from childhood on, maps for each movement are essentially created here.

Movements that we do often create large highways in our nervous system, while movements we do rarely only create small paths. However, if these highways or paths are no longer used, they fade away over time.

Now, the Turkish Getup represents an extraordinarily complex exercise. This exercise is highly demanding in terms of coordination, as it combines various movement patterns. The Turkish Getup integrates both a rotation in the shoulder girdle and a hip flexion with hip extension, as well as the lunge as a contralateral squat variation. The Turkish Getup also places high demands on proprioception, the awareness of space.

Due to the deficits that arise with age, the individual movement patterns for the Turkish Getup often need to be trained separately at first. Because if you can't get up from a half-kneeling position without weight, you certainly won't be able to do it with weight. Meaningful progressions include the hip bridge, later the T-Spine Bridge, the half-kneeling position with and without support, the RKC Armbar, and the Overhead Walk.

Then you can slowly start practicing the TGU from top to bottom.

The first Turkish Getup in both directions is then a real milestone, providing significant benefits for everyday movements, such as getting up from bed, climbing stairs, and much more.

According to a study by Stuart MC Gills, back pain could be significantly reduced when participants completely avoided flexion in the spine for the first 2 hours after getting up.

This also includes getting out of bed with a neutral spine, for which knowledge of the TGU is more than helpful.